New Cloud Services for Blockchain Launched by IBM

04/30/2016

With the purpose of aiding those companies that are looking to set up cloud computing - a network of computers where users are increasingly storing their data and computing work, IBM started a new service that helps such clients to design and develop blockchain technology in a secure environment in the cloud.

The company announced this very recently.

The blockchain is a digital tool for doing a slew of functions such as recording and verifying transactions. It is also the underlying technology behind bitcoin. According to many supporters of bitcoin technology, it would help make it easier to create cost-efficient business networks without requiring central control.

After Wall Street's major players such as Goldman Sachs delved into the bitcoin and the blockchain technology and saw it as a way to solve inefficiencies in financial markets, there has been a surge in the interest in the blockchain technology since last year.

"Clients tell us that one of the inhibitors of the adoption of blockchain is concerns about security. While there is a sense of urgency to pioneer blockchain for business, most organizations need help to define the ideal cloud environment that enables blockchain networks to run securely in the cloud," said Jerry Cuomo, vice president, Blockchain at IBM in a statement.

With cloud services of the highest Evaluation Assurance Levels (EAL) in the industry to support the use of blockchain in government, financial services and healthcare and with the highest Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS 140-2), IBM said that it is addressing security issues in several ways.

The opening up of an IBM Garage in New York and London were also announced by the technology company. These garages are similar to research labs on the blockchain created by several major financial institutions over the past year. The purpose of the IBM garages is to help clients with the designing and development of their blockchain networks, said Cuomo.

To enable clients to collaborate with IBM experts on the design and implementation of blockchain for business, Garages in Tokyo, London and Singapore will also open in the coming weeks.

IBM is also working with clients such as BNY Mellon to accelerate the design and development of a unique application for securities lending, using a blockchain network to trade and transfer assets along with the opening of the IBM Garage this month.

“At BNY Mellon, we are actively exploring blockchain’s potential to better serve our clients and our company. With this new initiative, IBM is providing an environment that will allow companies like us to collaborate more easily and more securely and in a more standardized way, which is critical to advancing meaningful use cases for blockchain,” said Suresh Kumar, CIO, BNY Mellon.

IBM Cloud will allow production blockchain networks to be deployed in minutes, running signed, certified and tested Docker images with dashboards and analytics as well as support and is built to help businesses quickly host secure, tamper-resistant networks and scale to thousands of users.

By providing an auditable operating environment with comprehensive log data that supports forensics and compliance, these new cloud services have been optimized for cloud-based blockchain networks. Detection and responding to unauthorized attempts at physical access is made possible by tamper-resistant storage of crypto keys and complete protection around the cryptographic module. Additionally to prevent leaks through shared memory or hardware, the IBM Cloud services enable blockchain peers to run in protected environments.